The cafes have coffee, smoothies, and tea drinks, including bubble tea (also known as boba).[8] Milk tea flavors have included chrysanthemum, honeydew, mango,[9] and taro, and blended iced versions of the drink with and without creamer are called "snow" and "slush", respectively.[10] Topping options include egg pudding[11] and popping boba.[9] Oasis Tea Zone serves lunch and dinner, with a food menu that has included popcorn chicken,[3]Nutella wontons,[12] and cherry chevre cake.[13]
The Liu family opened the original cafe in 2001,[14][15] in a building that previously housed a Uwajimaya grocery store.[16] Members of the family include I-Miun, who also owned Eastern Cafe,[17][18] and his sister Jeannie.[4]Northwest Asian Weekly has described I-Miun as "one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the community". According to the newspaper, it took a few years for Oasis Tea Zone to be a profitable business.[19]
In 2014, the cafe partnered with the Chinatown/ID Business Improvement Area to sponsor a parklet with seating, tables, and planter boxes. The parklet was one of ten planned throughout the city at the time.[20]
The University District location has been a participating vendor in the neighborhood's annual Street Fair.[12][22] The cafe also participated in Seattle's first boba festival in 2022, offering mango lemonade with mango popping boba,[23] and has been a vendor in the 'U District $4 Food Walk' event, offering hibiscus lemonade and mochi waffle.[5]
Oasis Tea Zone has had work completed by local architect and design firm Board & Vellum.[24] The chain's popular popcorn chicken was replicated at I-Miun Liu's cocktail bar Dynasty Room.[25]
Oasis Tea Zone won in the Favorite Bubble Tea Café category of International Examiner's Reader's Choice Awards in 2013.[26] It won in the same survey's Favorite Bubble Tea category in 2016.[27] Ann Karneus included the business in Seattle Metropolitan's 2022 list of the city's sixteen best boba shops,[10] and Lynn Schnaiberg of Seattle's Child magazine said the C–ID cafe is "usually busy" and had many flavor options in 2023.[28] According to the University of Washington, the C–ID location has been called "the premiere late-night boba and tea cafe".[29] Gillian McMahon of its student newspaper, The Daily, called Oasis Tea Zone a "classic Seattle spot" in 2022.[30]
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